Pierre Monteux - Pierre Monteux conducts Debusy & Ravel (1962) [2015] Hi-Res

laude Achille Debussy (August 22, 1862 – March 25, 1918), composer of impressionistic classical music.
Born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Yvelines, France, Claude Debussy studied with Guiraud and others at the Paris Conservatoire (1872-84) and as an 1884 Prix de Rome winner, went to Rome, Italy (1885–7), though more
important impressions came from his visits to Bayreuth (1888, 1889) and from hearing Javanese gamelan music in Paris (1889).
Wagner's inuence is evident in the cantata La damoiselle élue (1888) and the Cinq poèmes de Baudelaire (1889) but other songs of the period, notably the settings of Verlaine (Ariettes oubliées, Trois mélodies, Fêtes
galantes, set 1) are in a more capricious style, as are parts of the still somewhat Franckian G minor String Quartet (1893); in that work he used not only the Phrygian mode but also less standard modes, notably the
whole-tone mode, to create the oating harmony he discovered through the work of contemporary writers: Mallarmé in the orchestral Prélude à 'L'après-midi d'un faune (1894 - in 1912 used as music for the L’Après-midi
d’un Faune ballet production) and Maeterlinck in the opera Pelléas et Mélisande, dating in large part from 1893-5 but not completed until 1902. These works also brought forward a uidity of rhythm and color quite new to
Western music.
Pelléas, with its rule of understatement and deceptively simple declamation, also brought an entirely new tone to opera — but an unrepeatable one. Debussy worked on other opera projects and left substantial sketches for
two pieces after tales by Edgar Allan Poe (Le diable dans le beroi and La chute de la maison Usher), but neither was completed. Instead, the main works were orchestral pieces, piano sets, and songs.
Among his major orchestral works are the three Nocturnes (1899), characteristic studies of veiled harmony and texture ('Nuages'), exuberant cross-cutting ('Fêtes') and seductive whole-tone drift ('Sirènes'). La mer (1905)
essays a more symphonic form, with a nale that works themes from the rst movement, though the centerpiece (Jeux de vagues) proceeds much less directly and with more variety of color. The three Images (1912) are
more loosely linked, and the biggest, Ibéria is itself a triptych, a medley of Spanish allusions. Finally, the ballet Jeux (1913) contains some of Debussy's strangest harmony and texture in a form that moves freely over its own
eld of motivic connection. Other late stage works, including the ballets Khamma (1912) and La boîte à joujoux (1913) and the mystery play Le martyre de St. Sébastien (1911), were not completely orchestrated by Debussy,
though St. Sébastien is remarkable in sustaining an antique modal atmosphere that otherwise was touched only in relatively short piano pieces (eg.La cathédrale engloutie).
Debussy wrote much piano music although the most important of them to begin with are works which, Verlaine fashion, look back at rococo decorousness with a modern cynicism and puzzlement (Suite bergamasque,
1890; Pour le piano, 1901). His rst volume of Images pour piano 1904 - 1905 evokes tonality that was rarely heard in works by his contemporaries such as phrases suggesting the rippling of water in the rst piece Reets
dans l'eau as well as a homage to Jean-Philippe Rameau's inuence in a slow and mysterious court dance in the second piece Hommage à Rameau. But then, as in the orchestral pieces, Debussy began to associate his music
with visual impressions of the East, Spain, landscapes etc, in a sequence of sets of short pieces. This can be heard in the volume of pieces known as Estampes which was composed in 1903 and features pieces suitably entitled
such as Pagodes which invokes a feel of the Orient and of magnicent pagodas and its imposing turrets. The second piece in Estampes entitled La soirée dans Grenade vividly recalls a Spanish atmosphere. Even in his famous
Children's Corner Suite for piano, which he wrote for his beloved daughter whom he called Chou-chou also suggests inuences from the Orient as well as a new wave of jazz inuence although Debussy also has a laugh at
Richard Wagner in the piece Golliwogg's Cake-walk.
His last volume of Etudes (1915) interprets similar varieties of style and texture purely as pianistic exercises and includes pieces that develop irregular form to an extreme as well as others inuenced by the young Stravinsky
(a presence too in the suite En blanc et noir for two pianos, 1915). The rarefaction of these works is a feature of the last set of songs, the Trois poèmes de Mallarmé (1913), and of the Sonata for ute, viola and harp (1915),
though the sonata and its companions also recapture the inquisitive Verlainian classicism. The planned set of six sonatas was cut short by the composer's death in 1918 from rectal cancer.
Claude Debussy died in Paris on March 25, 1918 during World War I and a siege by the Prussian army who pounded Paris from the 'Big Bertha' gun not far from the capital city. He was interred there in the Cimetière de Passy.
Debussy's death as well as the World War I coincided with the sad end of the Belle Epoque era which witnessed Paris blooming with sophistication and modernity as never seen before in Europe.

Ravel was born in Ciboure, France (near Biarritz, part of the French Basque region, bordering on Spain). His mother was Basque
while his father was a Swiss inventor and industrialist. At seven years old, young Maurice begun piano lessons and composed
pieces beginning about ve or six years later. His parents encouraged his musical pursuits and sent him to the Conservatoire de
Paris, rst as a prepratory student and eventually as a piano major. During his schooling in Paris, Ravel joined with a number of
innovative young composers who referred to themselves as the 'Apaches' because of their wild abandon. The group was well
known for its drunken revelry.
He studied music at the Conservatoire under Gabriel Fauré for a remarkable fourteen years. During his years at the conservatory,
Ravel tried numerous times to win the prestigious Prix de Rome, but to no avail. After a scandal involving his loss of the prize, even
though he was considered the favorite to win that year, Ravel left the conservatory. The incident also lead to the resignation of the
Conservatoire's director. Ravel was inuenced by composer Claude Debussy; likewise, the same held true with Debussy in respect to
Ravel. Ravel along with Debussy were the dening composers of the movement. Ravel was also highly inuenced by music from
around the world including American Jazz, Asian music, and traditional folk songs from across Europe. Ravel was not religious and
was probably an atheist. He disliked the overtly religious themes of other composers, such as Richard Wagner, and instead preferred
to look to classical mythology for inspiration.
Ravel never married, but he did have several long-running relationships. He was also known to frequent the bordellos of Paris.
During the First World War Ravel was not allowed to enlist because of his age and weak health and instead he became an
ambulance driver.
He had very few students which included Maurice Delage and Vaughan Williams.
In 1932 Ravel was involved in an automobile accident that severely undermined his health. His output dropped dramatically. In
1937 he had an neuro-operation that he hoped would restore much of his health, but the operation was a failure and he died soon
afterwards.